Intel steps up strategy on handsets

Intel will step up efforts to boost revenue from handsets and other markets beyond its core computer business.

The company’s chief executive, Paul Otellini, has said that mobile phones, software and ‘embedded’ chips will be crucial for the business.

Otellini said: ‘We’re flushing out the software side. In these new spaces – in consumer electronics and in handhelds in particular, and to some extent in netbooks – the Intel side of the world is lacking the viral apps development that you see on the iPhone, for example.’

Mobile phone unit shipments are expected to hit 1.1 billion in 2009 and be worth $217.2bn (£132bn), according to analysts.

Intel, which announced a mobile partnership with Nokia in June, will target small, internet-connected devices and handsets with a platform codenamed ‘Moorestown’, due out in 2010, and another smaller platform codenamed ‘Medfield’, due out in 2011.